Wattle Tree down...
Oops - in the last week of June my glasshouse was smashed in half when a huge Wattle tree crashed down. Planning the clean up - what to do first? Organise Non-Gardening Partner with his chainsaw, obviously.
Glass-House Broken
First, do the things that I can do easily. Collect up the broken glass (gloves on please) and put in the bin. Stash all the unbroken panes somewhere sensible - in the half of the glass-house that is still standing? Make a start lopping off smaller tree branches, and drag them to the bonfire. Cut up pieces for kindling.
Leaning Wattle
The chain-sawing will be intense (the trunk is huge, and Acacia wood is tough). Yeay! Firewood logs for next winter, even some left over. I can barrow the bigger logs that need splitting and dump them by the Stables. Others can stay piled up in the garden for now.
Hole in the Glass-House Roof
Written action is so easy - all tasks are manageable, the clean-up will be finished in no time. Right? Maybe not! Oh joy! Oh boy! So let's get started...
Three days later...
NGP and I have been clearing up for nearly a week now, putting enough hours in to see good progress. There are piles of firewood in the garden, and piles of green branches ready for the shredder. All the broken glass is collected, and I've bonfired a lot of the dead wood.
What's next?
So what's to come? What's next? More of the same. The larger trunks are still in situ - waiting for a larger chain-saw? Broken glass panes are still jammed into their metal frames. I need gloves to get them out. And many more smaller branches need to be dragged out and organised.
A Few Days Into the Clean-Up
But all in all a good first week's work. And why did the tree fall down? It's been rakishly leaning over for the last twenty-five years. It had to happen, one day.